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Help with bottle feeding!

So I tried to return to work this week but my 4 month old doesn't want to drink froma bottle. She has taken a bottle before sporadically. I would love to know what has
worked for everyone. We tried a sippy & she took a little bit but a lot of milk spilled all over the place. Help! Thanks!!

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

You should start pumping one bottle 1st thing in the morning and have your partner feed it to her at night. When you are no where around. A lot of babies won't take one when their mother is anywhere around because it's confusing to them. So maybe after dinner or before you go buy groceries or something and let them try when you are not around at all.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

And try lots of different bottles, different nipples, and try giving the milk cold instead of warm, or warm instead of cold. If you're giving stored milk, make sure you taste-test for lipase issues- those can cause bottle refusal.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

If the milk is spilling when cup or sippy cup feeding, slow things way down.
bottles shiould also be given slowly, http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...astfedbaby.pdf following babies cues. Baby is used to being able to control milk flow at the breast so it can be helpful to replicate that as much as possible when using alternative feeding methods like bottles or cups.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

My husband has tried, as well as our child care provider. We have tried with & without me. She does the same thing with everyone, including me. Plays/chews with the bottle nipple & then gets upset. Have tried different bottles & nipples, warm vs. cold, freshly expressed vs. frozen. She just doesn't want it.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

Right. But here's the thing. All you can do is keep trying. Your baby will either eat while away from you or she won't. And there is nothing you can do about it except keep trying. Because at the end of the day if she chooses not eat while away from you she will just reverse cycle. Which isn't ideal, but she won't starve. We are animals. We are hard wired to survive. If she is really really hungry she WILL eat. If she doesn't need to, she can choose to wait for you. And some babies do. They wait for their mother's and they reverse cycle. So don't stress about it too much because it's not something that you can control. She won't starve. If she chooses not to eat it means she can wait. However, it may end up being a different situation with the DCP. Are you leaving her with a DCP? Or your Husband?

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

I know it's stressful when a baby refuses a bottle and you are already no doubt stressed enough returning to work! But I promise you, it will be ok. No mother has ever had to quit her job because her baby would not eat. Reverse cycling as djs.mom mentions may happen but that is pretty much the worst case scenario. Baby and your caregiver will figure it out and your baby will be ok.

Also, I suggest, revisit the sippy or even just a small, plain, open cup. the key is to hold baby upright, bring the edge of the cup to baby's lips, and slowly tip the cup so milk is just touching baby's lips, and let baby lap or slurp the milk, a tiny bit at a time, with frequent pauses as baby needs.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

I don't know if I would call reverse cycling a "worse case scenario" Meg. It happens. Round these parts it happens a bit. And new mother needs to NOT freak about it. Because just in the same way that she would allow her baby to STTN without eating (which would be OK. Her baby is 4 months old.) A baby CAN go a different 8hours without eating and be OK. It's not ideal especially not for a working mother but it's workable and I wouldn't consider it a worse case scenario.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

You're right, worse case scenario was too strong. Could not figure out better way to say 'unlikely' because in my opinion, it is.

Babies completely refusing ANY nutrition during an entire average length workday that mom is away from baby, on a regular basis or after the first few days of adjustment, certainly may happen, but rarely. That was my point. But I agree, it could happen and would not mean baby would starve.

Baby needing to nurse at night or perhaps more often at night after mom returns to work for connection and nutrition is, on the other hand, quite common. But of course, so is most babies wanting to nurse at night even if they are with mom all day. Babies just normally want to nurse at night.

Re: Help with bottle feeding!

It's hard for me to feed her all night long since I am pretty sure i have Restless Legs Syndrome. Also, she is miserable during the day without eating. I'm going to keep trying the sippy cup. Could I
try water in the cup or is she still too young? Just to get her used to it w/o the breastmilk. Thanks!